Starting early...

Katzen

What a long day! Only home at 6:30 and then still a dog wanting walking. Was going to be good and go hockey training but this pile of books aren't going to mark themselves so thought it best to stay warm, do that, then have an early night. No spending, no booze- all still ticking along nicely!

Katzen

Managed the gym today so under £3 a session for the month so far. No spending and no booze still. Am having a debate with myself about coupons. Got a nice little handful of them in Sainsbugs on Sunday- 1 for 8p/litre off fuel if I spend £15 on clothes, £6 off £40 spend and double points on shopping and fuel. On the one hand I could do with some new work t-shirts, could stock up on bits that will last to make up £40 and car is nearly empty so a full tank of fuel would be well timed. On the other hand, I wasn't previously planning to do any of those things (car would get £10 in to last the week) so although I have the cash to do it, I'm not sure if I should spend it or not. But then they are all things I would buy eventually anyway so am I just spending for the future and saving by doing it. Decisions, decisions...

Katzen

Christmas shopping done! All courtesy of my favourite online book seller I had £30 vouchers earnt from Swagbucks (soooo not worth the hours it took to get them, won't be doing that again!) plus £50 credit on my credit card so that leaves me with under £40 spent :j well within my sealed pot savings. I do have one or two little things to buy for DH but I am thrilled that this year it is all under control and not on the credit card!

Katzen

Been a few days and they have been busy. Had my first drinking session of the month on Sunday, resulting in the first hangover of the month on Monday! Have been really good with the spending, trying to keep out of my overdraft, which leaves me with about £30 until a week Friday. Should be do-able...

Katzen

A beer and a half on Tuesday takes my drinking days total up to 2, with only one more planned at a wedding before the end of the month. Chippy tea makes the last week of shopping a touch tight but my freezer is stocked so that should be do-able. No way I will achieve my gym target but at least I've made good use of my free lovefilm month so its not all bad! Nee house is moving along rapidly, hoping building work will be complete in about 3weeks, then we can do some internal work before Christmas and move in sometime in Jan. Only paying for one house will def help the finances!

Katzen

The night before payday and things are looking fairly rosey. Still £50 in the current account, although £104 on the credit card from buying Christmas presents, so will have to dip into the cash I banked from my sealed pot but won't be spending all of it, so that's good news. Lost count of NSDs but it was clearly good as I have money left. Came just under for the GC and AFD but no where near for the gym! Getting a bit bored of lack of progress, now just need to settle in for a few months scrimping until we get back on track.

Katzen

Payday-woohoo! Been online, paid my CC from last month, paid the last of what I owed the hockey club, cleared my payrise into savings and done a little TT so my current account is looking nice and rounded now. Treated myself to a frozen pizza and some beers after a stinking week, feeling better already Have popped my lovefilm discs in the post and will cancel the subscription on Monday to avoid paying for it. Intend to spend the weekend making the most of it.

Katzen

Oh, and realised this eve that I could claim tax relief for laundering my lab coat at work, so I've been on and update my self assessment, thereby reducing what I owe the tax man by £60 (I hope I've got the right end of the stick for that!). Intending to give them a ring when I next get the chance and see if I can make a claim for previous years too...

Katzen

Having spent nearly 1/3 of our food budget in the 1st week, I've come to the conclusion that I need to get smarter and cheaper with our food. I'm going to get back to eating mostly veggie, with fish and meat no more than once a week (luckily DH won't see this, or there'd be uproar). This means I need to get back in the habit of cooking again and to do that I need some new, exciting recipes.
For the 4days DH is eating at home this week we will have:
-Chickpea burgers with HM flat breads, tzatzki style dip and some kind of bulgar wheat salad.
-fish pie (enough for 2 nights if I serve a heap of veg)
-veg biriyani, maybe with more HM flat breads.

DH is away the next week so maybe I can live on lovely veg &pasta and salvage this month's food budget

Katzen

Right, just got off the phone to the tax office and the letters required to re-claim tax on uniform washing seem like a right faff! Wondering if it's worth going back and doing it for all the fuss tbh!
In other news fish pie from bits left in the freezer was pretty good. Had previously bought some frozen fillets and struggled through eating them in some other recipes but they were actually quite pleasant in fish pie. Def won't be buying them again for other types of recipe but was nice to get them used up